ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016

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Lab 3 – Interfacing to 7-segment displays and buzzer

Objectives

 To learn to display a decimal number on a 7-segment display.

 To learn to use multiplexing technique to display several digits on several

7-segment displays.

 To learn to implement a “queue number system”.

 To learn to produce a tone on a buzzer.

Introduction / Briefing

7-segment display at Ports B & D

 In this experiment, you will be turning on and off segments in four 7-

segment displays connected to Ports B & D, to display some numbers.

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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 Considering only one 7-segment display (shown below) and answer the
following questions:

5V

7-segment
PIC18F4550 display A
COMMON
RD0
A B
F
G
RD1 B

RD2 C E C
Digital
output dp
D
port
RD6 G

RD7 How it looks

dp

Common anode

Cathodes

Q1: Are the LED’s in the 7-segment display connected in the “common anode”
mode or the “common cathode” mode? ____________________

Q2: What must RD0 produce (logic ‘0’ or logic ‘1’) to turn on segment A?
__________

Q3: What must PORT D produce (in binary format) to show the digit “1” on
the 7-segment display? PORTD = 0b .

Q4: Of course, PORT D must be configured as an output port. Give the 2-line
C command to configure PORT D as a digital output port and to show the
digit “5” on the 7-segment display:

TRISD = 0b____________________ // configure Port D as digital outp.

PORTD = 0b______________________ // display “5”

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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 Considering four 7-segment displays together (shown below) and answer

the following questions:

RB0

RB1

RB2

RB3 7-segment displays

DIG3 COMMON DIG2 DIG1 DIG0

Digital
output RD0
A
ports RD1 B

RD2 C

RD6 G

RD7 dp

Common anode

PIC18F4550 Cathodes

A A A A

F B F B F B F B
G G G G

E C E C E C E C

dp dp dp dp
D D D D

Q5: What will be shown on the 7-segment displays if PORT D outputs

0b01001111 while PORT B outputs 1000 to its lower 4 bits?

DIG3 shows _____

DIG2 shows _____
DIG1 shows _____
DIG0 shows _____

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Q6: What must PORT B and PORT D produce to show 2 on DIG2?

PORT D = 0b ________

PORTBbits.RB3 = _____
PORTBbits.RB2 = _____
PORTBbits.RB1 = _____
PORTBbits.RB0 = _____

Q7: What will be shown on the 7-segment displays if following C program is

run?

TRISB = 0b11110000; // lower 4 bits are outputs

TRISD = 0b00000000; // all bits are outputs

while (1)
{
PORTB = 0b00000001; // enable DIG0
PORTD = 0b00111111; // display 0
// Some delay

PORTB = 0b00000010; // enable DIG1

PORTD = 0b00000110; // display 1
// Some delay

PORTB = 0b00000100; // enable DIG2

PORTD = 0b01011011; // display 2
// Some delay

PORTB = 0b00001000; // enable DIG3

PORTD = 0b01001111; // display 3
// Some delay
}

Your answer:_____________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Q8: What do you think will happen if the delay is increased?

Your answer: _______________________________________________

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Q9: What do you think will happen if the delay is decreased?

Your answer:
_______________________________________________

You will find out the answer to the two previous questions in the
experiment.

Buzzer at Port C

 In this experiment, you will also be turning on and off a buzzer connected
to PORT C to produce a “tone”.

low pitch tone

high pitch tone

 Study the above diagram and answer the following questions:

Q10: What happens when RC0 outputs logic ‘1’?

The transistor is turned on and ( assuming VCE[sat] = 0.2V, ) pin 2 of the

Buzzer is at _____ V while pin 1 of the Buzzer is at _____ V. So the
Buzzer will be turned _____. If RC0 outputs logic ‘0’, the Buzzer will be
turned _____.

 By toggling ( on -> off -> on -> off …. ) RC0 continuously, a tone can be
produced by the buzzer.

 If the rate of toggling is high, a high pitch tone is produced.

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Activites:

Before you begin, ensure that the Micro-controller Board is connected to the
General I/O Board. The General I/O Board is further connected to a 7-
Segment/Switch Board.

PORTD – 8 segments (‘a’ to ‘g’, and decimal point) of all 4 digits, active high (‘1’
turns on a segment, ‘0’ turns off a segment).

PORTB – RB0 to RB3 – COM pins of all 4 digits (DIG0 to DIG3), active high (‘1’
enables digit, ‘0’ disables digit).

PORTB – RB5 – push button switch, active low (pressed gives ‘0’, released gives
‘1’).

So PORTD controls the number e.g. ‘8’ to be displayed on a digit, while PORTB
controls which digit displays the number.

Displaying a decimal number on a 7-segment display

1. Launch the MPLABX IDE and create a new project called Lab3.

Display 2. Add the file Single7Seg.c to the Lab3 project Source File folder.
“0” on
DIG0.  Make sure Copy is ticked before you click Select. If you have forgotten
the steps, you will need to refer to the previous lab sheet.

3. Study the code and describe what this program will do:

__________________________________________________

4. Build, download and execute the program. Observe the result and see if it
is as expected.
Display
“1” on
DIG1.  5. Modify the code to display the digit “1” on the next 7-segment i.e. DIG1.
Build, download and execute the program to verify your coding.

6. Describe what will happen when PORTB = 0b00001111. Why?

Answer: _____________________________________________

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 ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Display 4 Displaying 4 different decimal numbers on four 7-segment displays

decimal
numbers
on four 7-
seg.’s
 7. Replace Single7Seg.c with Four7Seg.c. Note that the program uses the
delay function delay_ms() and contains #include “delays.h”. The files
delays.h and delays_utilities.c need to be added to the Project.

8. Study the code and describe what this program will do:

__________________________________________________

9. Build, download and execute the program. Observe the result and see if it
is as expected.
Increase
delay  10. Increase the delay between digits. What do you observe?

__________________________________________________

Decrease
delay  11. Decrease the delay between digits. What do you observe?

__________________________________________________

12. As can be seen, multiplexing technique here involves turning on only one
digit of display at a time, and after a short delay, move on to the next
digit etc:

Show ‘0’ on digit DIG0.

Delay
Show ‘1’ on digit DIG1.
Delay
Show ‘2’ on digit DIG2.
Delay
Show ‘3’ on digit DIG3.
Delay
Repeat above

The delay is to give time for the LED’s to light up and the number to be
seen. Too long a delay will cause the numbers to flicker and too short and
the display will become blur, as the LED’s do not have time to turn on
properly and be seen.

13. You may try to display today’s date as DDMM and show it to your
classmates.

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 ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Extra Exercise - Implementing a “queue number system”

(Do this only if you still have time. Otherwise, skip to the next section to
try out the “buzzer”.)

 14.
Q-no.
Replace Four7Seg.c with Count7SegSw.c.
system

15. Study the code and describe what this program will do:

__________________________________________________

16. Read the following explanation if you are stuck.

17. The decimal numbers to display on the four 7-segments are stored in an
array of 4 unsigned chars

unsigned char val[4]; // i.e. val [0], val [1], val [2], val [3]

These are initialised to val [3] = 9; val [2] = 8; val [1] = 7; val [0] = 6; in
the main program. So, the initial display should be “9 8 7 6”.

18. 9876 are what you want to see. However, what the 7-segments want to
be told are the binary patterns 0b01101111 [9], 0b01111111 [8],
0b00000111 [7], 0b01111101 [6].

19. The function convert (in the seg7_utilities) produces the binary pattern
required to show a decimal number on a 7-segment. E.g. if decimal number
(“digit”) = “0”, binary pattern (“leddata”) = 0b00111111.

20. As you know by now, multiplexing technique is used to enable each of the
4 digits in turn, so that the number of PIC pins required to display 4
digits (including the decimal points) is fewer than 4 x 8.

21. Here an unsigned char variable point is used to control which digit is
lighting up.

22. It is initialised to 0b00000001 i.e. DIG0 will light up first.

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23. Putting all these ideas together, you get the following chunk of codes:

point = 0b00000001; // enable DIG0 first

for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) // loop from DIG0 to DIG3
{
PORTB = point; // enable one DIG
outchar = val [i]; // get one decimal number to display from the array
// convert to corresponding binary pattern for the 7-seg,
PORTD = convert (outchar); // and send the binary pattern to the enabled DIG

point = point << 1; // shift left by 1 bit, to enable the next DIG,
// so 0b00000001 becomes 0b00000010, then 0b00000100,
// then 0b00001000

… // some delay
}

24. Whenever the switch connected to RB5 is pressed, the 4-digit display is
incremented by 1. This is done by the following lines of code and the
function update:

if (PORTBbits.RB5 == 0) // if switch is pressed

{
press = 1; // this is explained below
val [0] = val [0] + 1; // increment the lowest digit by 1
update (); // update the other digits accordingly
}

25. A micro-controller can work very fast. When a switch is pressed “one
time”, a micro-controller could have read it several times, and increment
the display several times, as shown below:

Display incremented by 10,

although switch pressed “one time”

switch

PIC
checking
switch
status

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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26. To solve this problem, a variable press is used to control the flow of the
program:
…
press = 0; // initially… in the “switch not pressed” state
while (1)
{
… // display the decimal numbers
Display is only
if (press == 0) // starting from the “switch not pressed” state incremented the
{
first time the
if (PORTBbits.RB5 == 0) // if switch pressed
switched is found
{
press = 1; // change to the “switch pressed” state
to be pressed.
… // increment the 4-digit number to display
}
}
Subsequently,
if (PORTBbits.RB5 == 1) // switch released only check for
press = 0; // change to the “switch not pressed” state, ready for next round the release of
} the switch.

27. The best way to check whether you have understood this program is to
try to explain it to a classmate.

28. Once you have understood it, build, download and execute the program.
Observe the result and see if it is as expected.

29. Describe how you can use this in a Q-number system. What else do you
need?

I still need _____________________________________________

a.) display

b.) UP button
c.) ticket
Your Q-number is
printer +
3208 “counter” +
user button

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 ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Producing a tone on a buzzer

Tone on
buzzer  30. Replace Count7SegSw.c with Buzzone.c.

31. Study the code and describe what this program will do:

__________________________________________________

32. Note that in Buzzone.c (under the function onetone), the variable is used:
k.

The “for” loop i.e. k determines the duration of the buzzing, while the
delay_us() determines the pitch of the buzzing.

void onetone(void) //Function to generate one tone

{
unsigned int k;

for (k = 0; k < 100; k++) //Determines duration of tone

{
delay_us(3000); // useable values from 100 to 5000
PORTCbits.RC0 = !PORTCbits.RC0; //Invert logic level at RC0
}
}

33. Build, download and execute the program. Observe the result and see if it
is as expected.

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 ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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Different
tone
34. Modify the program by adding another function named twotone with a
different value in delay_us(value). Include twotone in the main program
and test out the sound effect, as follows:

while (1)
{
Onetone ();
PORTD = 0b10101010; // pattern on LEDs
delay_ms(500);
Twotone ();
PORTD = 0b01010101; // another pattern on LEDs
delay_ms(500);

while (1); // loop forever to stop music!

}

35. Debug until the program can work.

// Single7Seg.c
// Program to test 1 7-segment display

#include <xc.h>

void main(void)
{
ADCON1 = 0x0F;

TRISB=0b11110000; //RB3 to RB0 are connected DIG3 to DIG0

//RB5 is connected to a switch

TRISD=0b00000000; //RD7 to RD0 are connected to segment LEDs

while(1) //repeat
{

PORTB = 0b00000001; //enable DIG0

PORTD = 0b00111111; //display 0

}
}

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/*
* File: Four7seg.c
*
* Created on 13 January, 2016, 1:52 PM
*/

#include <xc.h>
#include "delays.h"
void main(void)
{

TRISB=0b11110000; //RB3 to RB0 are connected DIG3 to DIG0

//RB5 is connected to a switch

TRISD=0b00000000; //RD7 to RD0 are connected to segment LEDs

while(1) //repeat
{

PORTB = 0b00000001; //enable DIG0

PORTD = 0b00111111; //display 0
delay_ms(1000); //LEDs on for a while

PORTB = 0b00000010; //enable DIG1

PORTD = 0b00000110; //display 1
delay_ms(1000); //LEDs on for a while

PORTB = 0b00000100; //enable DIG2

PORTD = 0b01011011; //display 2
delay_ms(1000); //LEDs on for a while

PORTB = 0b00001000; //enable DIG3

PORTD = 0b01001111; //display 3
delay_ms(1000); //LEDs on for a while

}
}

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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// Count7SegSw.c
// Counting on 4 7-segment display by a switch on 7-seg Board

#include <xc.h>
#include "delays.h"
#include "seg7.h"

unsigned char point, outchar, press;

void main(void) {
char i;
TRISB = 0b11110000; //RB3 to RB0 are connected DIG3 to DIG0
//RB5 is connected to a switch

TRISD = 0b00000000; //RD7 to RD0 are connected to segment LEDs

val[3] = 9; //contents of DIG3

val[2] = 8; //contents of DIG2
val[1] = 7; //contents of DIG1
val[0] = 6; //contents of DIG0
press = 0;

while (1) //repeat

{

point = 0b00000001; //enable DIG0

for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)

{
PORTB = point; //enable one DIG
outchar = val[i]; //get one value for the DIG
PORTD = convert(outchar); //convert to LED code

point = point << 1; //point to the next DIG

delay_ms(1);

if (press == 0) //switch press first time

{
if (PORTBbits.RB5 == 0) //if RB5sw is ON
{
press = 1; //switch being pressed
val[0] = val[0] + 1; //increase DIG0 value
update(); //adjust the rest of values

}
}

if (PORTBbits.RB5 == 1) press = 0; //switch released

}
}

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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// file : seg7.h

unsigned char val[4]; // variable used

extern void update(void) ; // update the above variable

extern char convert(char outchar); // converts the outchar to 7

segment //display pattern

/*
* File: seg7_utilities.c
*
* Created on 14 January, 2016, 7:59 PM
*/

#include <xc.h>

extern unsigned char val[4];

char convert(char digit)

{
char leddata;

if(digit==0)leddata=0b00111111;
if(digit==1)leddata=0b00000110;
if(digit==2)leddata=0b01011011;
if(digit==3)leddata=0b01001111;
if(digit==4)leddata=0b01100110;
if(digit==5)leddata=0b01101101;
if(digit==6)leddata=0b01111101;
if(digit==7)leddata=0b00000111;
if(digit==8)leddata=0b01111111;
if(digit==9)leddata=0b01101111;
return(leddata);
}

void update(void) //Function to adjust DIG values

{
if(val[0]>=10)
{
val[1]=val[1]+1;
val[0]=0;
}

if(val[1]>=10)
{
val[2]=val[2]+1;
val[1]=0;
}
if(val[2]>=10)
{
val[3]=val[3]+1;
val[2]=0;
}
if(val[3]>=10)
{
val[3]=0;
}
}

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ET1010 MAPP / ET1216 EDBP II © Singapore Poly 2016
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// BuzzOne.c
// Program to activate buzzer with one tone
// For project using USB interface with Bootloader

#include <xc.h>
#include "delays.h"

void onetone(void) //Function to generate one tone

{
unsigned int k;

for (k = 0; k < 100; k++) //Determines duration of tone

{
delay_us(3000); // useable values from 100 to 5000
PORTCbits.RC0 = !PORTCbits.RC0; //Invert logic level at RC0
}
}

void main(void) {

TRISCbits.TRISC0 = 0; //-- Set RC0 as output

TRISD = 0x00; //-- Set all pins on PortD as output

{
onetone(); //sound ON then OFF
PORTD = 0b10101010; //pattern on LEDs
delay_ms(500);

onetone(); //sound ON then OFF

PORTD = 0b01010101; //another pattern on LEDs
delay_ms(500);

while (1); // loop forever to stop music!

}
}

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